In the construction of roadways, tracts of ground along surfaced roads often are sloped which require that such tracts be graded, compacted and provided with a ground cover to prevent soil erosion. Typically, after such tracts are graded and compacted, they are seeded to grow a cover of grass. Preparatory to seeding, such tracts are not only graded and compacted but further are conditioned by providing the compacted soil with depressions or crevices which serve to capture and retain seed that has been sown, in order to promote accelerated germination and an early ground cover.
In the past, in has been the conventional practice to condition such tracts for seeding by operating crawler tractors over the ground so that the projecting cleats of the crawler tracks of the machines form depressions or crevices in the soil. Such practice of operating such tractors ever sloped terrain, however, has been found to be not only time consuming and unproductive but often hazardous. Accordingly, it has been found to be desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method of compacting and conditioning a tract of ground, and particularly a sloped tract of ground, to provide a uniform pattern of depressions or crevices in the compacted soil, into which sown seeds of a cover such as grass may be captured and retained, which is simple in design and use, effective in performance and productive in operation.